Guardians have same 'fatal flaw' for playoffs as Brewers, but with a lot less hope

The Cleveland Guardians are fighting the Chicago White Sox for the AL Central division title and a chance at a first-round bye. While they've taken the division lead, it could easily slip back out of their grasp.

When it comes to the postseason, the Guardians have some great defense and pitching to rely on. But their offense is a big question mark. More specifically, it's about their power-hitting abilities.

ESPN's David Schoenfield highlighted the "lack of power" as the Guardians' "fatal flaw" this upcoming postseason, which happens to be the same as the Milwaukee Brewers'. But there's one big difference: Cleveland has a lot less hope to overcome this flaw.

Guardians have less hope to overcome 'fatal' power flaw

"Cleveland Guardians. Fatal flaw: Lack of power (tied for 28th in home runs)," Schoenfield writes. "Cleveland falls into the same boat as the Brewers, except the Guardians don't have Milwaukee's ability to hit for average or overall depth."

The Guardians offense isn't in a good spot, as their 147 homers are tied with the Brewers for the second-worst mark in Major League Baseball, just one homer ahead of the Los Angeles Angels.

Either team could end the regular season with the fewest home runs hit in the big leagues this year. That will, obviously, be a huge issue come the postseason.

The Brewers have likely NL Cy Young winner Jacob Misiorowski alongside a strong bullpen and a few other good starters.

MORE: Brewers' Jacob Misiorowski makes all kinds of MLB history with 1,000 pitches of 100 mph

While the Guardians won't have a Cy Young winner in the AL, Parker Messick and Gavin Williams alongside Cade Smith make for a strong pitching staff as well.

The reason why there is less hope in Cleveland compared to Milwaukee is the overall offensive production. Going by OPS, the Brewers rank fourth-best in MLB at a .747 OPS.

The Guardians? They come in at second-to-last, 29th overall, with a lousy .689 OPS. The .236 batting average (24th), 604 RBIs (27th), and .375 slugging percentage (29th) are some of the worst offensive marks in baseball.

Sure, the Guardians might have some good players and low strikeout numbers. But their lack of power and overall disappointing offense are likely to prove to be a "fatal flaw" come the postseason.

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